Four Questions to Ask Before Transitioning from NAV to Business Central
Once you understand the benefits and reasons why you should be upgrading from Dynamics NAV to Dynamics 365 Business Central, it’s time to start planning how you’re going to make that transition happen. While there are many action items that need to take place to get your company and team prepared, you should first start with laying the foundation for your project. Here are four questions to ask yourself before transitioning from NAV to Business Central.
1. What are the business drivers surrounding your decision to move to Dynamics 365?
There are many business drivers for moving to the cloud such as reallocating IT responsibilities away from your team and onto Microsoft, reducing hardware costs, or enabling your team to work remotely. Make a list of these drivers in order of importance to you. This list will help you keep your top priorities in focus as you start to build out your project plan.
2. What is the overall vision for the future of your business?
Business is ever-evolving to incorporate new technologies and meet customer expectations. For instance, in mid-1994 there were less than 3,000 total websites, and today customers expect to be able to go to your website to find product information, details about your business, operating hours, contact information, and more. Without a website, customers are not able to find the information they’re looking for quickly and will likely move on to a competitor.
While not all major changes to your business can be predicted, there are certain updates that you’ll want to consider now that will position you for growth and continued success 10 years from now. Start by asking yourself these questions and then continue to brainstorm how your particular industry may change.
- How do you see your staffing levels evolving?
- What support will your team need to keep up with growing demands?
- What expectations do your customers have now? And how will that change in the future?
3. What will make your upgrade to Business Central a success?
Defining the success criteria for your project adds to your ability to keep your long-term business goals in mind while you’re making business process decisions. Likely, there is a long list of items that your business would benefit from as you make the move to Business Central. However, often there are budget or time constraints that require these items to be bucketed into different project phases. By defining your criteria for immediate/phase 1, near-future/phase 2, and long-term success/ongoing phases with your software solution, you can start to prioritize success criteria and functionality requirements.
4. Who Will Your Project Team Include?
Building an internal project team is critical to the success of any new ERP implementation or upgrade. Your team should consist of team members representing a variety of different departments who are all invested in the success of the project and can provide input and direction into current business processes, requirements, and areas for improvement. Project teams ideally include IT team members, a project manager to help keep the project on task, and business process owners from across the company.
The information that you gather during this initial phase and the team that you build will serve as the foundation for your project. By putting a plan into place and working with the right partner, upgrading to Dynamics 365 Business Central can be a seamless project. Learn more about how to upgrade from Dynamics NAV to Dynamics 365 Business Central by reaching out to Stoneridge Software.
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